the giants new preside late show with stephen colbert is next. >> have a good evening. ptio nsored by cbs >> a brothel owner wins his state assembly election in a landslide, even though he's dead. republican dennis hof getting a whopping 68% of the vote in his nevada race. >> we now go to his opponent lesia romanov's concession speech. >> good evening! i am so proud of all of you. oh, i love you, too! thank you, thank you! we fought a good, tough campaign. and i want to congratulate my opponent. he ran a surprisingly strong race, considering he's a dead pimp. as you know, i ran on a simple platform: "i'm alive, and i of course, the night could've

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been worse. although i lost to a dead pimp, at least i didn't lose to steve king! ( cheers and applause ) thank you! it's "the late show" with stephen colbert." tonight, sessions adjourned. plus stephen welcomes chris pine, and major garrett, featuring jon batiste and stay human. and now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, it's stephen colbert! ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: please have a seat, everybody. welcome, one and all, to "the late show." i'm your host, stephen colbert.

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last night was a monumental election that fundamentally shifts the bal not the top story, because this morning, trump fired his attorney general, jeff sessions, seen here on his happiest day at the job. ( cheers and applause ) "my god, what have i become?" ( laughter ) and after trump had done it, but before we knew he done did it, one our guest tonight, major garret, from cbs, asked donald trump this: >> can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking currently, now, after the midterms, about your attorney general and your deputy attorney general? do they have long-term security? >> i'd rather answer that at... a little bit different time. >> stephen (as trump):

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" a little bit later, because right now, i'm having a hard time hearing any of these questions over the loud beating heart of jeff sessions hidden under my floorboards okay. a little trouble stuffing the little guy down there. get, get down! get! i can-- you've got to be able to hear it." >> jon: low key. >> stephen: now, there is some confusion among stupid people as to whether sessions was fired or he resigned. he did submit a letter of resignation, but it began, "at your request, i am submitting my resignation." ( laughter ) look at that. southern hospitality until the end. ( as sessions): "sir, at your gracious request, i am going to sit on it and spin." ( laughter ) this is, of course, none of this is exactly a huge shock.

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for over a year now, trump has blamed sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the russia investigation, which led to the appointment of special counsel robert mueller. you can't blame sessions for recusing himself. it's the only thing that's good that he's ever done. that's like hating lou bega for "mambo no. 5." the entirety of the song i know. and trump has made no secret of his feelings about sessions. he's called jeff sessions a "traitor," "a dumb southerner," "mr. magoo," and, most humiliating of all, "member of my administration." ( laughter ) no word-- ( cheers and applause ) no word what jeff sessions is going to do next. i assume he's going to spend more time with his family- separation policy. ( laughter ) but it is time for us to say farewell. so, please welcome, for the last time, the outgoing attorney general of the united states,

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mr. jeff sessions. >> thank you, thank you, stephen. thank you. ( cheers and applause ) thank you, thank you. i thank you. thank you, stephen, for this opportunity to be welcomed anywhere. it is with a heavy heart and a cream filling that i bid you all a fond adieu and one final "i do not recall." i humbly request my severance pay in sweet tea and confederate dollars. and while my service was cut short in an untimely manner, well, that's just the way my cookie crumbles. please feed me to seagulls on the banks of mobile bay! goodbye forever. do it, stephen! do it!" do it!" ( cheers and applause )

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( cheers and applause ) of course, whoever replaces jeff sessions has big tiny shoes to fill, because that person will now oversee, instantly, as soon as they're appointed, oversee the mueller investigation. now, we haven't heard much from mueller lately because he rigged for silent running before the midterms. but they're over, and reportedly, don junior has told friends recently that he believes he could be indicted. ( applause ) yeah, yeah. that's true. if that's true-- >> jon: he's coming for him. >> stephen: it's only a matter of time until donald trump distances himself from his son. (as trump) "who you talking about? danel glump? i've never heard that name in my life. but i think he got coffee for

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us." but who would be willing to go down in history as the man who fired robert mueller? enter new acting attorney general and caucasian m&m, matt whitaker. theow whitaker's stance on the mueller investigation-- unless you read his op-ed-- "mueller's investigation of trump is going too far"-- in which whitaker wrote that if mueller looked into trump's finances, it could be damaging to the president of the united states, and by extension, to the country. and by "the country," of course, he means russia. ( laughter ) and last year-- one assumes. one assumes. ( applause ) ♪ ♪ i some residual attorney general on my hand. ( laughter ) and last year on cnn, this new acting attorney general whitaker explained how the president could best obstruct the mueller probe. >> and, really, i think what, ultimately, the president is

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going to start doing is putting pressure on rod rosenstein-- who is in charge of this investigation, is acting attorney general-- and really try to get rod to maybe even cut the budget of bob mueller. >> stephen: good point. trump could take all the money away from bob mueller. and, just out of habit, give it to a porn star. ( laughter ) so-- allegedly. so trump just hand-picked a guy who wants to stop the investigation into donald trump investigation of donald trump. that's like a defendant at a murder trial saying, "your honor, you're fired. i'm going to have my friend terry take your seat. now, then, terry, if it please the court, did you throw that knife into the river like i asked? the correct answer is no." and if all that's not unsettling enough-- and it is-- last year, whitaker also

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retweeted an article titled, "note to trump's lawyer: do not cooperate with the mueller lynch mob." that's going to be an awkward first day on the job. "hey, bob, i'm your new boss, let me know if you need any help with the witch hunting and mob lynching. by the way, i'll take that stack of indictments. they're not in the budget anymore." meanwhile, i don't know-- i don't know about you, but i am still recovering from the election of 2016. but there was also-- ( applause ) but there was also an election last night. democrats took control of the house of representatives. ( cheers and applause ) but-- 27, 37? something. mild wave. but in his press conference "usa today," trump said this was great for the republicans and so

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did trump. >> we saw the candidates that i supported achieve tremendous success last night. mia love gave me no love, and she lost. barbara comstock was another one. i mean, i think she could have won that race, but she didn't want to have any embrace. peter roskam didn't want the embrace. eric paulsen didn't want the embrace. those are some of the people that, you know, decided for their own reason not to embrace. >> stephen: i'm-- i gotta say, i'm really surprised that stopped him because he is not known for asking permission before he embraces. ( applause ) i mean, just look what he did to that poor flag. i mean... ( laughter ) now, likely new speaker pelosi has promised to work with the president, and he thinks that's a great idea. but there's one thing that could make that impossible. >> if they start investigating you, can you compartmentalize that and still continue to work

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with them for the benefit of the rest of the country, or are all bets off? >> no, if they do that, then it's just-- all of it is-- is a war-like posture. >> stephen: and, of course, we know trump's war-like posture: (as trump) "look, nancy... ow, bone spurs! bone spurs! bone spurs. i got-- ow, ow, ow! oh! i have to-- i'm sorry, i left-- i have-- i'm having a vietnam flashback. i gotta stay home and have sex with models." then i have jeff sessions on my shoe now. ( laughter ) that's-- that's-- this is what-- this is what the republican party is doing with jeff sessions right now. they're just... just scraping him off. just-- there you go. there you go. thanks for stopping by. then the questions got a little more specific. >> point blank, democrats go after your tax returns. will you try to block that, or

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will you allow them to have them? >> look, as i've told you, they are under audit and have been for a long time. they are extremely complex. people wouldn't understand them. people don't understand tax returns. it's a very complex instrument, and i think that people wouldn't understand it. (as trump) "or at least, i hope they wouldn't. otherwise, i am so screwed." here's the thing-- they are, they are. and trump's tax returns are complicated. we've obtained one page, and you can see the complexity. ( laughter ) trump-- i can't fig that you are out. i can't figure that out. what could that mean? trump seemed a bit subdued, throughout this morning's press conference, until he saw one of his favorite chew toys, cnn's jim acosta. >> do you think that you demonized immigrants? >> i want them to come into the country, but they have to come in legally. >> they're hundreds of miles away, though.

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they're hundreds and hundreds of miles away. that's not an invasion. >> honestly, i think you should let me run the country, and you run cnn, and if you did it well, your ratings wouldttf i y ask or question-- >> that's enough! >> mr. question, if i may ask one other question-- >> that's enough. >> mr. president, i was going to ask-- pardon me, ma'am. >> that's enough! >> stephen: what? what a dick. did you see that woman try to grab jim acosta's mic? she tried to snatch it right out of his hand. she looked like the wedding deejay who just realized the best man is loaded. "okay, tony. okay, tony, that's enough. we all think sara's beautiful in that dress, but please stop using the word 'delicious.'" trump got more hostile when asked about his campaign rhetoric. >> thrsh some people that say

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now the republican party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. >> i don't believe that. >> what do you make of that? >> i don't know. why do i have my highest poll numbers ever with african americans. why do i have among the highest poll numbers with african americans? that's such a racist question. let me tell you-- that's a racist question. >> stephen: "and i hate racist questions. i love racist limericks. there once of a brown guy from guam-- and it gets a little sexy from-- ( laughter ) let's just say-- let's just say it involves his mom. ( laughter ) and just a little later, another reporter helpfully gave trump his actual poll numbers among african >> one point of fact, because you told her you have the highest approval among african-americans-- >> quiet, quiet. >> it's just 8%, sir, single digits. ( cheers and applause )

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>> jon: 8, 8%. >> stephen: actually, technically, it's gone down do 7% since kanye got out of politics. other reporters also asked trump about the accusations of racism. >> michael cohen recently said you called black voters "stupid." >> that's false. >> omarosa has accused you of using the "n" word. >> that's false. >> and the rapper lil jon said you called him "uncle tom." what's your response-- >> i don't know who lil jon is. >> he was on "the apprentice." >> i don't know. oh, he was? okay. oh, i see. >> stephen: oh, my god. oh, my god. donald trump and i have something in common: neither of us watched "the apprentice." he doesn't know lil jon, so this picture must have been awkward. lil jon is on the right. and i've been told we have a frm lil jon about trump claiming he doesn't know who he is.

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>> what?! >> stephen: thank you, lil. excellent reporting. we've got a great show for you tonight. chris pine is here. we're riding the pine. but when we return, good news from the election. stick around! that's right! ♪ a little bit of erica by my side a little bit of rita is all i need ♪ ugh. this screen! you know, sprint has the awesome new iphone xr. oooh. let's take a picture! whoa! it's so clear! yeah, it has an amazing liquid retina display... (photographer) look at the colors! ...on a network built for unlimited. this is amazing! and it's only $0 per month, compliments of sprint. i can't hold this smile much longer! i can. (vo) it's here! we'll give you the iphone xr to use for $0 per month with eligible trade-in for people with hearing loss, when you switch to the sprint network. visit sprintrelay.com. i was looking for a companion and we we had a connection

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i am ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: welcome back! jon batiste and stay human, everybody, right there! ( cheers and applause ) beautiful, beautiful. can i see that? hey, real quick here. folks, just so you know, just a quick reminders, we are selling

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"whose boat is this boat?," written by donald j. trump accidentally. these things are selling like hot cakes. right now, simon and schuster is printing thee as fast as they can. amazon is sending them out as fast as they can. audio book is now available for "whose boat is this boat?." audio book, audible, google play, anywhere audio books are audiod. i don't know. it's, like, seven minutes long, the audio book, something like that. which i don't know how. it's like a 14-page book. i don't know how-- how slowly was i reading that book? it's good, anyway. welcome back, welcome back to more of tonight's monologue. ( cheers and applause ) again, the election was last night-- quick reminder for those of you who are nay coma. some of the results were to me.

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first of all, i'd like to send out a hearty "don't let the door hit ya" to soon-to-be-former wisconsin governor scott walker, who lost last night to democrat tony evers. it is the most celebrated defeat of a white walker since "game of thrones." the loss was hard on scott walker. hopefully, he consoled himself with his brother, johnny. as with all defeated politicians in wisconsin, walker will be battered, fried, and covered in melted cheese. ( laughter ) and it was a banner election for diversity. first of all, at least 110 women won last night. ( cheers and applause ) women, women, women. i love women! meaning a record number of women will now serve in congress. ( cheers and applause ) meaning-- okay, okay. meanwhile, red wave, blue wave-- this was a woman wave. which means mike pence can no longer go in the water without

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mother's permission. then there's rashida tlaib of michigan and ilhan omar of minnesota, who became the first muslim women in congress. ( cheers and applause ) that's right! that's right! two-- two muslim women! or as the g.o.p. calls them, "a caravan!" ♪ ♪ and in new mexico and kansas, deb haaland and sharice davids became the first native american women elected to congress. ( cheers and applause ) and davids is also the first openly l.g.b.t. representative in kansas and the first openly l.g.b.t. woman of color in congress. ( cheers and applause ) she-- she-- >> jon: wooo! >> stephen: is a liberal dream! i hear she also doesn't own a v gd. hear coco milk pr totes .

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pl meanwhil ♪ ♪ perhaps the most satisfying race for me occurred in south carolina's first district, which include my hometown of charleston, south carolina, where democrat joe cunningham defeated huge trump supporter katie arrington. ( applause ) now, as a democrat-- as a democrat from south carolina, cunningham joins the ranks of rare mythical creatures, like big foot, unicorns, and people who do crossfit without telling anyone about it. in michigan they voted to legalize recreational marijuana. ( applause ) to celebrate, michigan turned ewlo hten.en into a bong.

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( band playing ) ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: hey, everybody, welcome back to "the late show." you know what? you guys-- ( cheers and applause ) you guys are in for such a treat because my first guest is lovely fella. he is a fantastic actor. he is absolutely easy on the eyes. he has starred in "wonder woman," "star trek," and "hell or high water." he now stars in the film, "outlaw king." >> i could talk about honor, but are you here. you know enough about honor.

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i know you all as men. but today, "today we are beasts. we fight for god, for honor, for country, for family, for yourselves! i do not care! so long as you fight! >> stephen: why can't we be civil? applause )ome, chris pine! >> i thought we might do a little bowing ritual there. good to see you again nice to have you back. last time you were here was for

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the movie-- >> "finest hours." >> stephen: "finest hours." >> coast guard or boston? coast guard, right on! cool! >> stephen: now, in that, you had-- you had a boston accent. which is-- it's a-- it's a-- >> it's a doozy. >> stephen: it's a minefield. so dangerous to try to do a boston accent. it's taken down some very good men. >> i think it might have taken down me. >> stephen: i don't know, these people cheered. you're also doing a scottish accent. it's frightened a lot of people trying to do that. >> yeah, yeah. >> stephen: which is harder for you, boston or scottish? they're both angry people? ( laughter ). >> they're both-- they're both-- you know, it's one of those things that they're not only accents. it's a culture around the accent. it's like the religion of the accents of these particular places. so you want to do justice to the people and to the culture. and -- >> stephen: did you have to do it in front of scottish people? >> what do you think i was doing

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whole time? >> stephen: i don't know, you're actors? >> they dubbed me, yeah-- no. i did, and i could-- here's want thing-- when you're surrounded by a bunch of gruff men with-- with sharpened steel, you try to do your best at all times. ( laughter ) and then look down and run away with shame when you feel like you failed them. but everybody is, like, you know, they feel like they have the ph.d. of the scottish accent or the boston accent. you know i havave the north hollywood brogue. so i don't come from a particular -- >> stephen: you sound american. >> i'm about as-- i'm about as white as they come. i'm about as cookie cutter wasp -- >> stephen: 23andme i might win. >> have you done that. >> stephen: sure, sure what did they say? >> all i remember is it talked something about asparagus. >> stephen: did they make you pee in a cup? >> they have all the details in the-- in the results that you

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get. one of mine was my peeing response to asparagus. >> stephen: your-- your peeing response-- >> you know some people pee it smells like asparagus. some people pee, it doesn't. i'm not going to tell you what mine is, by the way. >> stephen: wow, place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen. they didn't give me that information. >> what did they give you. >> stephen: i did it with henry louis gates at harvard university with faces of america, and the whole result he said to me was, "you're white, baby." you're the whitest man i've ever met. >> surprise, surprise. >> stephen: is what he said to me. what was your hook? what would do you to practice your scottish accent? >> well, so, i had a wonderful dialect coach, a woman who has been working in the business a long time and has given great help to many people. so i worked with her for about two months before i went out to scotland. and every morning in the makeup trailer, when i was putting on my-- my muddied mullet and

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pieces of beard, i would do shakespeare with her and do some poetry and -- >> stephen: did you do any of the scottish plays? >> scottish play? we did-- we did some of the scottish play. we did... what did we do? "henry "v"." "hamlet." >> stephen: can you do it in scottish? >> no, don't put me on the spot like, that man. >> stephen: it's my job! it's my job! ( cheers and applause ) >> tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps on this pity piece from day to day until the last syllable of recorded time ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: >> stephen: now you play robert the bruce. >> indeed. >> stephen: who was robert the bruce? >> robert the bruce was-- he was born in the 13th century, late 13th century. whee was cocurrent with wallace who you know from "braveheart."

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>> stephen: so he is in that? >> a bit of historical trivia. "braveheart" which was attributed cinematically to the film which will not be mentioned "braveheart," is actually the name given to robert the bruce. >> stephen: what? >> upon robert the bruce's death, he asked his best friend, james douglas, to take his heart to the holy land. so james douglas took his heart, but it in an iron cask around his neck, was on his way to the holy land, ended up in seville, in spain, and the catholic duke of that area said, "hey, we're fighting the moores. you want to step in and give us a day?" stepped in, and was immediately killed, very quickly killed. both he and the heart and everything were sent back to-- back to scotland, and bruce's remains were ultimately divided into three different parts and buried at different places in scotland.

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>> stephen: why-- why did they chop him up? >> you know i'm not-- i'm not-- i'm not sure. robert the bruce is a very-- here's the thing-- he he was anointed king at 32. he fought the english for 20 years up until two years before his death. the english army at that time, the fight-- the big battle that we depict. >> -- he had 500 ill trained men go up against essentially what is the american nuclear army. it's like 5,000-- 3,000 mounted soldiers, 1,000 archers, 1,000 soldiers on the ground, and he defeated them in a day. which i don't know what the-- you know, the similarity would be now. but it was quite a feat of-- it was quite-- it was quite a thing. >> stephen: wow. i would say how? but then i wouldn't have to see the movie so i'm not going to ask that question. >> good point.

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>> stephen: you have to buy a ticket to find out how they do that. >> you do, indeed. >> stephen: i bet they're sneaky. >> very sneaky. >> stephen: do you guys paint yourselves blue or something like that? >> there's nothing like that. >> stephen: anybody fight naiked? >> no. >> stephen: you're naked in this movie. >>im naked. >> stephen: i heard that you're naked, fully naked. >> throughout the whole film! >> stephen: no, no, just the one scene! >> the whole film. >> stephen: i hear it's not very long-- the scene, the scene is not-- ( laughter ) >> ready, set, beard! >> stephen: you would beat me. thanks for being here again. >> all right, man. >> stephen: nice to see you. good luck with the beards. "outlaw king" is available on netflix friday. chris pine, everybody! we'll be right back with major garrett. a once-in-five hundred year storm

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♪ ♪ >> stephen: now, you-- how auspicious for us that we have you here tonight. >> that's a big word. >> stephen: "auspicious?" >> yeah. >> stephen: it is. you, this morning-- what order of question-- which question-- >> second. >> stephen: second question to the president of these united states. you asked-- what was it? >> long-term job security of the attorney general. kind of on the nose, as we say in the biz. >> stephen: what is the long-term job security. >> kind of on the nose. >> stephen: and he said, "i'd rather not talk about it right now. you're going to ruin the surprise." but he had already done it. >> yup. >> stephen: at that point-- >> the chief of staff, john kelly, had already called the attorney general. >> stephen: so kelly did it, not trump. >> correct. >> stephen: oh, what a hero-- >> surprise! >> stephen: exactly. what courage, what courage. did you know? >> i did not know-know absolutely. >> stephen: what does this mean? >> but i have a very strong

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sense that it was an important foundational question to put on the table and see if the president would drive closer to what i thought was going to come in a day or two. >> stephen: did you have a source telling you it was going to happen. >> several. >> stephen: i'm not going to ask what they were. >> several. >> stephen: one of your sources was of the president of the united states, i'm sure. ( laughter ) he's usually "the source." >> off and on, off and on. and you mentioned the book, thank you for doing that -- >> stephen: we'll mention it more in just a moment. >> please, do. >> stephen: it's "trump's wild ride." why did you-- it's "mr. towed's wild ride." >> right, if you've been to disneyland. >> stephen: and stormy daniels compared his penis to the character towed from mario cart. no, that's news! that's news! i'm not making that up. >> but it was not an inspiration for the title of the book. >> stephen: i hear it doesn't. >> but during the campaign, one thing i noticed is everyone in his inner circle would only refer to him one way: mr. trump. never donald, never the donald.

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never d.j.t. never "the boss." one way and one way over, mr. trump, mr. trump. as if they were hypnotized. and they actually tried to get reporters who covered the campaign also to reflexively, relentlessly refer to him in one way, one way only mr. trump. >> stephen: did they say that to you, "call him mr. trump?" >> yes, they would advise us to do that. someplace us did. some of us did not. ( laughter ). >> stephen: uh-huh... so do you think that mueller should be worried right now? because trump has put in this guy, who is on the record as saying that mueller's gone too far, and mueller can be slowed down or defunded. this gs- i at man, right? >> you said "worry." do you mean more worried? >> stephen: well, i mean, why do you think trump did it so fast? because he's going to drop something really quickly. reasonable people were saying we might learn something this week. >> he knows mueller has been preparing a report and also

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doing a lot of work at the grand jury, interviewing more witness s. >> stephen: further indictments. >> possibly. look, one thing i bright in the book, there were many times in the last year and a half where a source would call and say, "this indictment, this massive indictment is about ready to come down." i would run down that rabbit hole and the indictment would never show up. i'm cautious about what's coming and i wait until it actually happens and then we ropt it. which is kind of a basic in our industry. ( laughter ) so i don't know what's coming. i don't know what trump fears. but this guy whitaker does have a definite attitude about the mueller investigation that is aligned with the president's and aligned with very few other people who are looking at this from an outside, objective point of view-- that mueller should stay, mueller should be allowed to do what he is doing, and the president should back off. to the president's credit he said today, "i can fire everyone, but i won't." >> stephen: that was very big of him. >> technically he could fire everyone if he wanted to push

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all of this to the maximum edge of what people refer to as a constitutional crisis. but i like to tell people all the time, no, no. we have a constitution to solve crises. that's what the constitution does. it would be a crise, but it wouldn't be a constitutional crisis. it would be a presidential crisis. ( applause ) >> stephen: i never heard that before. like that. we have to take a little bit of a break, but don't go away because i want to ask you what it was like to be in that room today at the press conference. stick around for that. all right. ♪ ♪

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connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪ steak & eggr breakfast burrito. loaded with prime rib steak, scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns, and melted cheese. because at jack in the box, we're all about beefing up breakfast. ...think i pulled something. try my steak & egg breakfast burrito. part of the breakfast burrito family. ( cheers and applause ) hey, everybody, we're back here with major garrett. now in the press conference, he-- he mocked many members of the g.o.p. who lost. >> yeah. >> stephen: you've been to a lot of these press conferences after elections. is that common for the president to mock members of his own party? ( laughter ). >> so this whole line of questioning about common

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experiences. >> stephen: yes. >> presidential press conferences and the trump administration, i really do have to put that in a completely different category. so, no, it's not common. it's entirely uncommon and unusual. but if you know how much this particular president despises losers, it is completely consistent with his personality, and his approach to not only talking about himself but talking about people who do not align themselves with him. they're, obviously, wrong, because they lost. that proves my point. that proves i am the central figure in american politics, so he would say. and when you're the central figure in american politics you can call somebody a loser and not suffer any consequence s. >> stephen: he is the central figure in american pol techs and there's no escaping that. 32 no getting off "trump's wild ride," until it's over. >> we talked about sessions a second ago. in the book i recount on may 27,

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2017, the day robert mueller was named special counsel, jeff sessions, the attorney general, resigned, at the white house, to the president. and i recount in kind of interesting detail, i would suggest, how reince priebus, the then-chief of staff had to chase through the white house, out to the west executive avenue, to climb into the s.u.v. holding the attorney general, and plead with him to come back in the white house, unresign, and put the cork back in that bottle for some period of time. because he didn't want to have a dual crise of a special counsel and a resigned attorney general all in the same afternoon. >> stephen: well, that brings me to another interesting data point about this is that the letter, as released today, where sessions resigns, isn't dated. is there any chance that this is just the old letter that trump hung on to? ( laughter ) and that-- and sessions never even gave it to him and said, "guess what? surprise." >> i write about that in the book. there was a period of time, when he gave him an undated

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resignation letter to fill in the date himself. >> stephen: whitaker who has been put in-- >> as acting. ease not senate confirmed to anything. >> stephen: right. the senate has never said boo about him. >> no. he is like a placeholder, placeholder, placeholder. this is a vacancy act legal question. the senate hasn't confirmed him. how can he run a cabinet agency when -- >> stephen: especially one that is investigating the president of the united states? >> right. but any cabinet agency, but especially that one. when loretta lynch stepped down, who was the acting attorney. the deputy attorney, sally yates. >> stephen: and it's also not rod rosenstein. >> this is not just what he is he going to do but can he actually do this? >> stephen: what is it like to be in the room for one of these press conferences, especially today, which may not be the most bombastic. >> it's the most bombastic of my career. >> stephen: today. >> absolutely.

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>> stephen: even covering trump. >> yeah. as far as press conferences go. we had three or four throw-downs. >> stephen: peter alexander stood up for jim acosta. is that the appropriate thing to do? >> that's another thing different in the trump era. historically it's one man, one woman for him, herself. you do your thing, i'm going to try to be as competitive as i can, get my question, get my answer, and that's it. now, because there is a sense the president is not play acting with attacks on the media and maybe means it and those of us who attend rallies know his supporters react to it, sometimes in ways that are so hostile to make us concerned about our own physical safety, that there is a more of an impetus to sort of lock arms, just a little bit and say, "mr. president, if you're going to come at us that aggressively, we are going to lock arms because collectively, the first amendment is what united states all of us, and in the room and

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in the moment, we at least have to express that to you." ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: major, thanks so much for being here. "mr. trump's wild ride" is available now. major garrett, everybody! we'll be right back. what's a gig of data?

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>> stephen: that's it for "the late show."

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senator kirsten gillibrand. now stick around for james corden. good night! captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org. ♪ are you ready y'all to have some fun ♪ and feel the love tonight don't you worry 'bout ♪ where it is you come from it'll be all right ♪ it's the late late show >> reggie: ladies and gentlemen